Editor Picks - south asia

Editor Picks

Import duties on 85 percent of Korean goods, including auto parts and electronics, will be cut or phased out over the next decade, Korea's Trade Ministry said today. Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and his Korean counterpart Kim Jong Hoon will sign the agreement in Seoul, said Choi Kyong Lim, the official overseeing trade agreements, said today in Seoul.

Pakistan's national oil company will invest more than $800 million developing new projects this year as 50-year-old gas and oil fields can't keep up with rising energy demand. Attacks by insurgents on pipelines and installations have disrupted gas supplies to textile exporters, which account for two-thirds of Pakistan's overseas shipments.

"Industrial activity in India will gain more traction as the favorable effect of lower bank lending rates and a continuing fiscal boost offsets a still-weak export sector," said Rajeev Malik, a regional economist at Macquarie Group Ltd. in Singapore. The rise in output "pretty much destroys the probability of further rate cuts."

India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced plans to borrow a record 4.51 trillion rupees ($93 billion) to fund budget spending on roads, power and aid for the poor. Stocks, bonds and the currency slumped.
Unveiling the budget for the year to March 2010, Mukherjee said India's fiscal deficit is expected to widen to a 16-year high of 6.8 percent of gross domestic product from a revised 6 percent. Indirect taxes will be streamlined through a goods and services tax, he said in his speech in New Delhi today.

As reported by the finance ministry, Indian economic growth is predicted to spur as much as 7.75 percent in 2009. Two of the most important reasons are the improving U.S economy in second quarter reports and the recent successful harvests from the monsoon rains.

The rally this year has helped India post the fifth-best performance among the 89 markets tracked by Bloomberg News globally. Valuations have also climbed, with the Sensex now valued at 16 times reported earnings, double November's low of 8.1 times.
"The relative outperformance and the strong move in the market post the elections have now priced in improving economic fundamentals," the analysts wrote in the report. "The upcoming budget next month will be very important for the overall direction of the market."
The Sensex advanced 1.7 percent to 14,590.18, the highest in more than a week, as of 1:23 p.m. in Mumbai.

There are numerous reasons for deflation to occur. It can be caused by a decrease in the supply of money or credit or by a decrease in government and consumer spending. Side effects that accompany deflation are increased unemployment, due to lower levels of demand in the economy and dwindling profits. This could further increase the severity of a recession.

India's industrial output increased 1.4% from April 2008. An economist at HSBC, Robert Prior-Wandesforde said, "[Indian] output growth almost certainly bottomed on a year-on-year basis in March and we are looking for a healthy upward trend to develop from here."